Basketball on a Monday evening?? You gotta be kidding me??

After couple of days here in Fribourg, it was finally game day on Monday evening - but before that, just a little time to play 'tourist' and have a look at the sights near-by. For me this meant a short drive to Chateau St-Germain and have a nice walk in the Museum H.R Giger (for those who the name does not say anything, he's the guy who created Alien!). It's been a long time goal of mine to visit the museum and now I finally managed to do so. As with so many other touristy places - the key is to GET THERE EARLY!, I was the first through the doors and pretty much had the whole museum for myself for the first hour or so, some great pictures over there to see.. and nice Alien statues and other stuff.. just a shame that one can not use a camera in these places.. would have had some brilliant shots to share... then it was a leisurely drive back to the Hotel and slowly getting ready for the evenings game. BlogSwiss1

It didn't come as a huge surprise that the crowd at the venue wasn't in their thousands, but it was a surprise how few people had turned out to see the game. So for those Finnish fans who say that getting 4500 spectators to the Helsinki Ice Rink isn't good enough - they should try to be basketball fans in Switzerland.. where the crowd was more like 300-400 (in my non-professional and uneducated guess).

The Swiss came into the game strongly and kept Finland with-in touching distance for the early parts of the game - but a well placed time-out by coach Dettman was all that it took to ignite the team. With veteran Hanno Mottola calling the tunes on the court - the highlight of which was a high flying SLAM DUNK to get the whole Finnish bench celebrating, and some looks of 'Can the old guy do that??' from the bench as well.. I do believe that the picture (probably the best I took at the game) has already found its way to circulation at the Finnish press and looks like someone has posted it on the Koripallo.com website as well.. not quite sure where they found it, but thanks for the kind comments on the image, nice to know that every now and then one manages to get some half-decent images. 

In the second half of the game Finland turned on their second gear and ran away from the Swiss - and well, that was about it from the game. Unfortunately when a game is as 'dry' as this one, there isn't a great deal you say about it. Mottola's SLAM and Sasu Salin's 'impossible' two pointer maybe the couple of plays that stick to my mind. Also this game showed some of the strength that the Finnish team have, yes - they have their big star in Petteri Koponen, but it is a TEAM that plays out there. Tonite possibly all players got over 10 minutes on the court and all but one scored points. And in long qualifying stages or in tournaments, this asset is something that has and will help Finland. And to think that WHEN Finland reach Slovenia 2013 - they still have Teemu Rannikko to add to the roster and all these new comers of this summer have had big minutes in the qualifying. You can't help but think that things are looking bright for Finnish basketball right now.. BlogSwiss2

After the game - it was the usual 'get the interviews sorted in 5 minutes'. It is understandable that the team wants to get back to the hotel A.S.A.P - but a little more time with the players would have been great. Although this time the team seemed to have a very valid point.. during the interview with Mottola I could hear shouts that the Finnish team bus had broken down and alternative arrangements were in process to take the team back to the hotel. All good fun and games... 

In the interviews you have a 'guest appearance' by Mikko Koivisto - who tries to get Gerald Lee Jr to answer a question (sorry - but that is only in Finnish). I have listen to some of your requests and added some English interviews as well.. you have Ville Kaunisto's comments from the press conference and then Kimmo Muurinen talking after the game..  

That's all about the game - now a bit more of the 'photo-talk'. When one works to EXTREMELY tight dead-lines, you do NOT need your computer or software to be playing up. Now, I don't know what it is, but the 'crop' function on my Camera Raw and PhotoShop just sometimes 'freezes'. And the only way to get it working properly again is to shut down and restart the computer. And when that happens to you THREE times during the first two quarters of the game.. when you NEED to send your images, it doesn't exactly help you to do your work in a professional manner. If any photographers have ideas on how to fix that.. I will gladly listen for advice! BlogSwiss4

The lighting was improve to 'game night' lights, so I didn't get to test the 1DX under ISO5000 tonight, who knows what Albania will throw up on me next weekend. But for now - the videos have almost been edited and uploaded, images I will finish off tomorrow once I get home.. so all that is left to do at 1am in the night.. is to publish this Blog, pack the bags, get few hours or sleep and head to the airport.

Two days at home and then off to the most exciting destination this summer, ALBANIA! Never been there before and really looking forward to visiting the country and also experiencing the Albania vs Finland game... the Finnish team has been building up my expectations on the crowd/venue - let's just hope I won't be disappointed at the end of the week.